STARKVILLE — The Mississippi Horse Park was packed this weekend as a sea of people turned out to watch dozens of contestants ride livestock, rope cows and dive from their saddles to wrestle steers to the ground.
The performance came courtesy of the Starkville Rotary Club’s annual Rotary Classic Rodeo, a competition put on every year in support of community service and educational programs. This year’s rodeo saw the horse park filled to near capacity, with thumping music and chatter of the crowd before the show that was broken only by the occasional slam of hoof against metal as broncs tested the gates keeping them off the field.
The constant guiding voice of the show was Alan Moorehead, a former radio broadcaster and horse facility manager who got roped into narrating a Palomino show 40 years ago. He’s still on the road today announcing rodeos full-time, traveling from show to show with periodic stops at his home in Augusta, Georgia.
“I’m on the road about 40, 42 weeks a year,” he said. “November through December I’m on the road for 25 days. … But to be a part of this, with the crowd here and the proceeds going back into the community? Being a part of this, with these people, excites me a lot.”
His partner on the field was Ronald Burton. Once a bull rider from Philadelphia, Mississippi, Burton became a rodeo clown after retiring from competition. He said he’d always loved helping the rodeo clowns with their act, and started to perform himself 25 years ago.
“I was always a class clown and loved making people laugh,” he said. “… The hardest part of my job is traveling. I literally travel from Miami to California to Oregon, averaging 125 performances per year… The people are what keep me in this life. Rodeo fans are the best fans in the world.”
Burton cracked jokes and filled space between competitions. At one point, that included tricking the audience into thinking he’d thrown a live skunk at them. Carl the skunk, who Burton snared himself out in the wild, was in fact still safely ensconced in Burton’s pants, ready to go back into his covered carrier and out on the road.
‘Tough’ competition
Entertaining as Moorehead and Burton are, their real job is to provide a framework for the contestants. Competitors arrive from all over the south, many spending much of their life on the road traveling to shows nationwide.
It’s dangerous work. Under-shirt arm wraps and padded vests only go so far against 1,000 pounds of horse, and while tractors till the field to soften it, that dirt gets very firm very fast when pressed. Saturday’s show saw one horse fall on a contestant early on, and a second riderless horse tumble back onto its haunches as handlers worked to bring it under control. One of the bull riders was thrown off and then slammed between the bull and the railing, staggering slightly as he walked off the field.
Caiden McDowell was among the bareback riders, a 6-foot-3 competitor in a sport that favors packing as much strength onto as small a frame as possible. An agriculture business student, he said he’s been competing for three years, only starting professional competitions this year. He knows each person has a limited window to make it in rodeo, especially in rough stock.
“You’ve got to start somewhere, and you start by doing rodeos like this,” he said. “You’re going to get hurt. It’s not if, it’s when and how bad. If you’re still rodeoing at 30 you’re lucky. The rodeo doesn’t last forever for anybody, no matter how good you are.”
This year’s Rotary Classic drew in world champion contestants and National Finalist Rodeo competitors, all as a fundraiser for Starkville Rotary Club.
Even among the full-time and part-time professionals that spend most of their time on the road, none of them expressed any doubts about choosing to live in and around the rodeo. Some traveled alone, others sticking with a regular crew, others using contracting agencies and official organizations. All of them seemed to view the rodeo as a home, wherever that home happens to be waiting for them.
“It’s so close-knit I can’t go anywhere in this country and not be around family,” Moorehead said. “It doesn’t matter what road I’m on. Interstate, highway, backroads, wherever. I’m never more than three phone calls away from someone coming to bail me out. Yes, I get homesick, I miss my family. But I’m always with my other family.”
Starkville Rotary Club President Kyle Jordan said the club is still tallying the money raised during the event, but he is confident it surpassed last year’s rodeo — which raised $40,000 for the club’s projects.
“We’re looking really good. We’re above last year,” Jordan said. “This is the first year we’ve sold out of hamburgers, hot dogs and cheeseburgers, so it was very successful. I think it was the largest crowd we’ve ever had at the Horse Park. I believe the petting zoo really brings out the families, and this is a family friendly event. That’s our strive to make it that, and I think we were successful there.”
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